ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 20, 1994                   TAG: 9403220073
SECTION: BOAT SHOW                    PAGE: BS-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PERSONAL WATER CRAFT OVERTAKING OUTBOARD SALES

At a time when the economy has created rough water for the boating business, personal watercraft sales have been booming at a throttle-forward pace.

"The next three or four years we foresee that personal watercraft may even exceed outboard sales," Pete Jordan said of the national boating business.

At Webster Marine Center, where Jordan sells the Sea-Doo personal watercraft line, that's already the case.

Last year, the dealership, located at Smith Mountain Lake's Hales Ford Bridge, sold 140 Sea-Doos, Jordan said.

"We have ordered 180 of them [for this year]," he said. "We are wondering how we are going to get more."

Webster has set the personal watercraft pace in the region and other dealers are scrambling to catch up. Advantage Marine in Roanoke took on the Tigershark line last year, and Conrad Brothers on Claytor Lake will have the Wetjet line this year.

Once only available in a basic stand-up model usually found in a motorcycle shop, personal watercraft have gotten bigger and more powerful. One model will seat three passengers and pull a skier.

That means they no longer are just a kid's toy.

Who is buying them?

"Young kids, middle-aged professionals, even retired people," said Jordan.

"Definitely it is the high-performance models that people want," said Mike Fielder of Advantage Marine. "People will walk in and say a lot of things, but they want to know how fast it will go. That is their main interest."

"Real fast," is the answer.

Tigershark has a 72-horsepower model. Wetjet is expected to soon be out with an 80-hp model, said Mike Ratcliff of Conrad Brothers. Wetjet is manufactured by Mastercraft Boat Co., best known for high-performance tournament skiing craft.

"Sea-Doo has increased the horsepower on every model in the lineup except the entry one," said Jordan. "They have increased the horsepower, added some options and redesigned the hull; yet, they have kept the price at 1993 figures. Their objective this year is to sell as many Sea-Doos as all the other personal watercraft manufacturers combined." 


 by CNB